Government authorities will have the final say on the fate of an unexpected new “tidal pool” which used to be the preserve of a group of private landowners on the Hermanus coastline.
CapeNature on Monday confirmed a formal agreement is required to manage the pool and adjoining recreational area previously belonging to a luxury beachfront residential complex, Bayview. The pool area is now officially public property because a land survey found it straddles state land below the high water mark.
The high water mark survey was commissioned by a group of Hermanus residents spearheading development of a coastal path that hit a dead-end in Poole’s Bay, where the Bayview pool juts into the coastal corridor.
“As the (high water mark) determination has only now taken place, an agreement will need to be formulated regarding the management of the swimming pool area between the relevant authorities, which will include the department of public works and infrastructure, the Overstrand municipality and CapeNature,” said CapeNature spokesperson Petro van Rhyn.
“Coastal public property is property that extends below the high tide mark as well as public property owned and managed on behalf of South Africa by the department of public works and infrastructure. The swimming pool and entertainment area at Bayview Apartments is within coastal public property as determined by the high-water mark survey,” said Van Rhyn.
The cliff path has been marked by legal contestation involving various stakeholders, among them the Cliff Path Action Group (CPAG), which is still embroiled in a court dispute with the Overstrand municipality relating to coastal access and public servitudes. CPAG and the municipality have clashed over public access to a portion of the cliff path that skirts around a property that used to be owned by a Markus Jooste business entity.
CPAG was hoping the municipality would grant a public servitude over the property when it was subdivided in 2018, but in its papers before court the municipality insisted the servitude was unnecessary.
The municipality says it was unable to comment on the cliff path until the court dispute was settled: “Unfortunately, the application brought by CPAG against Overstrand municipality remains unresolved. Consequently, for now, we stand by our previous response insofar as we cannot engage on the topic until the court case is finalised.
“The municipality remains hopeful that the matter can be resolved as soon as possible, as we believe it would be in the best interest of the community to bring the matter to finality,” the municipality said in response to queries.
CPAG chairperson Jobre Stassen on Monday said Bayview should maintain the pool facility until authorities decide who should manage it. She said Bayview also needed to leave the area intact, including the pool pumps, which were now also public property.
She said the area was likely to become increasingly popular as more people accessed the Poole’s Bay area via the coastal path.
Historically, due to the difficulty of accessing the coast seaward of the Bayview property, many walkers have detoured along the Hermanus main road. However, the new path will stretch all the way along the picturesque coast famous for its whale sightings.
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